Cortana gets a lot of improvements in Windows 10: here they are

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Today’s Build 2016 brought a lot of good news for all Windows users. During the event, Microsoft was very generous, offering a lot of information about the new features in the Windows 10 Anniversary Update scheduled to be released this summer. Let’s take a look and see what some of the new features Cortana will surprise us with in a few months’ time are — we bet you’ll fall in love with Microsoft’s assistant if you haven’t already.

There is no doubt that Cortana is a very useful app, helping you better organize your schedule, manage your calendar, or find that important file you lost track of. The new features revealed by Microsoft today will make Cortana even more popular:

A new app collection. In a world where most developers focus on Android-compatible apps, this is an excellent piece of news. More than 1,000 applications will be integrated into Cortana in order to make your life easier.

Cortana will help you to schedule your appointments. If you allow the app to access your emails and calendar, it will help you decide when is the perfect time to set up a meeting with your team. If you have conflicting events on your calendar, the app will reschedule them so that they don’t overlap.

Cortana will add valuable information to your conversations. After having detected what the topic of the conversation is, the app will present related information. Suppose you want to go to the museum tomorrow: once Cortana detects your intention, it will provide you with information about the museum’s opening hours, for example.

Multi-device interaction. Received an SMS on your Windows Phone, but not in front of your PC? No worries? Reply to that SMS from your computer.

Expandable database. With more than 1,000 apps integrated into its system, Cortana will benefit from an expanded database with which can use to perform various tasks. For example, you are looking for a salad recipe and want to know how many calories each ingredient has: transfer the data from a recipe app to a calories intake app and you’ll have your answer.

Location tracking information. The app keeps track of all the places you have been to so that you can go back to that great restaurant where you ate that delicious steak two months ago.

Cortana will be available on your lock screen. No need to unlock your desktop or laptop.

It seems like the battle of artificial intelligence is getting fiercer. One could say that the new Cortana represents Microsoft’s response to Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa. And judging by the features the team revealed, it seems that Microsoft has done a better job than its competitors. With this, the cooperation between man and machine will be taken to another level. As Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella stated:

It is not going to be about man against machine. It’s about man with machine.

Microsoft has made a very interesting choice when they decided to bet on artificial intelligence for their products. It is one of the most difficult and challenging research and development areas, yet it always brings spectacular results. Science fiction is one step closer to reality thanks to Cortana.